Lawsuit challenges Arizona's limits on use of abortion drug

PHOENIX (Reuters) - Two women's healthcare providers have
filed a federal lawsuit in Arizona to block new regulations that
would limit the use of the most popular abortion-inducing drug
in the state, officials disclosed on Wednesday.

The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday in U.S. District Court in
Phoenix on behalf of Planned Parenthood Arizona and health
center Tucson Women's Center, said the rules, due to go into
effect on April 1, are unconstitutional and would severely
hamper a woman's right to a non-surgical abortion.

Under rules required by a 2012 abortion law, any medicine
used to induce an abortion in Arizona must be administered
according to protocol authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration and subject to instructions on the label.

The FDA has approved RU-486, the so-called "abortion pill,"
for use within seven weeks' gestation. Doctors who have
prescribed it later than that have made an off-label use which
is not be allowed under Arizona's law.

At issue in the case is a physician's discretion to go
"off-label" and use the drug as the doctor believes would be
best for a woman seeking to end her pregnancy.

"Arizona politicians have imposed restrictions that go
against years of scientific research and doctors' practical
experience in yet another effort to block women's access to safe
and legal abortion," said Nancy Northup, president of the Center
for Reproductive Rights, one of two groups representing the
plaintiffs in the suit.

The rules were part of a package of items included in
legislation signed into law by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer in
2012, in what has been a continuing effort to seek ways to limit
abortions in the southwestern state.

A provision at the heart of the law, banning abortions from
20 weeks' gestation except in medical emergencies, was struck
down last year by a federal court, but the drug provision
remains intact.

Similar rules on non-surgical abortions have been challenged
in several states. Last November, the U.S. Supreme Court let
stand a ruling that threw out limits on the RU-486 abortion pill
in Oklahoma after the rules were challenged by the reproductive
rights center.

"It is a shame that when Planned Parenthood can't win public
opinion, they try to use the courts to impose their will and
bail out their abortion business," said Cathi Herrod, president
of the conservative Center for Arizona Policy.

In Arizona, the latest figures show that 32 percent of the
13,340 abortions performed in 2012 were non-surgical - all but a
small percentage using RU-486, or mifepristone.

Republican lawmakers in the state House this week passed a
bill that would allow for unannounced inspections of the nine
licensed abortion clinics in Arizona. The legislation still must
be approved by the state Senate and signed by Brewer before it
can become law.